Bungie: "We still have risks to take"

Destiny developer says the company is "young and spry" in response to a fan asking if AAA games can be innovative.

Can a AAA game, like Destiny, be truly innovative? That's the question one Bungie fan posed to the developer recently. The Bellevue, Washington studio responded by listing the ways it is pushing the envelope instead of resting on its laurels.

"You make us sound like an old, Favorite Uncle who can barely touch his toes anymore. Bungie is young and spry--barely into our twenties," Bungie wrote as part of its latest Mail Sack feature. "We still have risks to take. Anyone who spends more time thinking about how things could be than how things are can innovate [Emphasis original]."

"Anyone who throws out their old way of doing things can innovate," the company added. "Anyone who thinks they can float above the high watermark can innovate. Anyone with a refrigerator filled with energy drinks can innovate."

Bungie also said its "massive infusion of new blood" is helping the company expand and try new things. One of Bungie's new hires is Danny Bulla, who worked on Red Dead Redemption at Rockstar Games as a senior game designer. Bulla is currently working on Destiny's sandbox elements.

"Nothing makes an old dog learn new tricks faster than an eager puppy who tries to claim the ball," Bungie said.

Very interested to see, play and follow this game throughout it's 10 year life. When I first learned that the game was supposed to be a 10 year project I was didn't know how to react but when I realized it was Bungie I was pumped. I'd be shocked if this game wasn't a success

So you are willing to take risks and innovate, when everyone stops doing this then I will say the industry is for sure going down the tubes. Unlike all the talking heads who say it's happening now. Sure they know more than I do, but the last time I checked video games are more popular now than they have ever been. Or they will go the way of Hollywood and make everything predictable and cater to the sheep.

risks? this game looked interesting in the cgi trailers, but that e3 gameplay, really sold me on this game being terrible, of all the games to use as a template, they chose borderlands.........ughhh halo reach sucked anyways

I used to love Bungie till MS turned them into a Halo refabricator, yet I still had hope when they bought themselves back until Destiny reveal and Activision deal. Still cannot believe the company that made Myth series and Oni turned into this.

"Nothing makes an old dog learn new tricks faster than an eager puppy who tries to claim the ball," Bungie said.

I don't think they know the right saying and I don't consider this game a "risk" by any means;

“We are absolutely doing things that would be familiar if you’ve played
any kind of open-world game. I mean… ‘Far Cry,’ even. We would be idiots
if we didn’t look at an awesome game like ‘Borderlands’ and ask, ‘What
are they doing well and how can we try to hit that same ball?’ I have
never played a game where I have such a great attachment to my gun as I
do in ‘Borderlands.’” -creative lead Joe Staten

I'm still not convinced on Destiny . I just don't see it being as big a success as the other FPS on the market. Destiny might end up being a better game than its contemporaries , but it doesn't strike me as having that ''pick up and play'' simplicity .

Well then what will this innovation be ? because so far it just seems like halo goes MMO, and saying you arent an MMO while you clearly are does not make you innovative, it just makes you be in denial towards logic.

@Vodoo The expectation of it making a billion dollars before it's even released is sick, but if it's good enough, then why not? Good games should be successful, even though there are lots of examples where less-than-good games are very successful.

I have seen many console gamers who start to bitch around as soon as they see some ambitious mods on PC, I have also seen them bitching for games like Diablo 3 and The Witcher then what's the problem if some PC gamers ask for a game that is console exclusive at the moment ?

The simple fact is anything which you cannot get sounds very interesting or attractive so you start asking for it, it's a common thing between both PC and console gamers, it's more visible on PC because more games are announced as console exclusives in the start.

I don't understand that if a PC gamer is asking for it then how does it affect you ? get over with it dude, it's the same old shitty way of starting a flaming war, I am tired of people always complaining about what others have to say instead of minding their own business.

I haven't read nor do I know any PC gamer that has bitched religiously about Destiny not being on the PC.

If anything, most PC gamers don't care for it and see it as a Borderlands clone, which may not be a bad thing. Although, personally, I think Destiny is going to be a lot better than Borderlands in many ways. I think Borderlands 2 was average.

PC gamer here, and I'll be picking up a PS4 for Sony and console exclusives. I don't get the fanboy hate, and you're not making it any better.

@Quanicus "Bungie is young and spry--barely into our twenties" Lol, so you're "older" than Bungie then? I'm 28, but I feel like I'm also barely into my twenties. I can't decide if that has anything to do with a lack of maturity or anything else, though.

@steelmouth I agree, not innovating isn't necessarily bad. Old features are not old hat if the hat fits. Innovation isn't inherently good, it's just something that's rarely ever been done before, like DLC, microtransactions and other stuff that were completely new and *innovative* business models some years ago.

@Don_Mattrick If you're on a tight budget, you can probably get one for like 500 dollars. Especially in the US where things are cheaper. I bought a laptop 2 years ago for school work in Sweden which cost a bit less than 1000 dollars, with everything included, like a mouse and MS Office. It has served me well and I won't need to buy another one for 3 years. Yeah, even if I didn't have a massive backlog, I would be still be able to keep it for 5 years without feeling left behind.

@Trance_Circa@andrewiresrfc Journey, The Last of Us , The Walking Dead (telltale) Dragon Age 1,2 ; there typical of games played by COD fanboys yes? In the future try and discuss people opinions without being an ass about it .

@Trance_Circa@andrewiresrfc Do we know how much story and depth it actually has before it's even released? It seems interesting, but I'll hold my judgment on it until it's out.

Also, the "then you must like CoD" reply is as generic as CoD has ever been. Please, far from everyone who has anything even remotely bad to say about Destiny is a CoD fan. By that logic you must be an ignorant and arrogant fan.

@Trance_Circa@Elann2008 "Please read through the messages". Hah, as if reading games articles didn't take enough time already, we're also supposed to read every comment or at least most of them. There are usually hundreds of them after only a few hours, thousands of them if it's about Xbox/Playstation. I only need to read through 30 or so to know that it's a waste of time reading through the rest. Your advice is more suited to forum threads, unless they're 30 pages.

@Trance_Circa@Elann2008 First of all...No. I am a PC gamer primarily. However, I also love the consoles. Destiny, to me, looks to be the biggest thing to come our way in a long time, and I cannot wait to play it. I wish it would be available for PC, but I won't hate on the game itself just because it isn't.

I am now going to have to shell out for a next gen console just to get to play Destiny. I am going the PS4 route because, well...so many reasons that I won't bother going into. Destiny will be worth it to me. Even though I'm a PC gamer.

@Don_Mattrick @theend3r It is handicap. You can't rotate that fast and if you could you couldn't aim properly (which you can't anyway). Then the lack of buttons, you can hotkey pretty much anything on a keyboard but hardly on a controller.